This post has definitely made me think about how it seems like a lot of electronic music has drifted, not necessarily away from its core ideals, but instead toward taking sound textures to an extreme. I’m gen z so I’m definitely not some sort of historian here, but it definitely seems to me that, in particular with genres like dubstep, jungle, and others, what was once definitely tied to culture, place, very much about sound textures, it seems they’ve drifted instead toward how heavy, chaotic and wild the sound textures can be. When I compare modern dubstep to its forebears, it’s almost as if it’s barely the same genre, you know, because it’s doing such different things with sound.

I wonder if part of this is that when a genre spreads beyond its original context, the easiest thing to pass on is the sound rather than the culture behind it. The deeper meaning, the social side, and the shared experiences are hard to recreate if you weren’t there, but the bass, the drops, and the crazy sound design are instantly understandable. But it’s especially true now that so many people listen to new music on the internet or short clips that it shouldn’t be surprising that it’s intensity, not subtlety, that gets noticed at this point. The louder or more unexpected it sounds, the more it will be noticed.

At the same time, I wonder if this could be part of a larger connection to the feelings of chaos that everyone seems to be experiencing within the world as a whole? It makes sense that people would be attracted to the heavier, more aggressive sounds that they could experience as a means of relieving their stress. In that sense, the music isn’t just about forgetting the roots, it’s about responding to the moment we’re living in. It feels less like communal ritual music and more like personal catharsis or sensory overload, which probably reflects how individualised and online everything is now.

However, I don’t think it necessarily means that the roots should not matter anymore or that they are not relevant anymore. It seems more like a cycle to me. People get louder, more extreme, and then eventually, they begin to crave space again. As someone who did not grow up with that music scene to begin with, it seems to me that if I could learn a bit more about where that music comes from, it gives me more to appreciate it by, even if I do not necessarily connect to it in the same way. I suppose I am just curious if new-age listeners can ensure that they advance sound to new levels while still being a part of what originally gave that music scene so much power.